About White Liver Gal
Karen Vincent is eleven when her mother leaves home, her father begins visiting her room late at night and she realizes her family has deeply buried secrets. Set on the beaches and in the nightclubs of Jamaica, White Liver Gal is a coming of age story about a young woman’s sexual power and the risks she faces in using it . When Karen tries to escape her fractured family as a teenager, she goes to live with her older married lover believing that it is better to be a mistress than a wife. White Liver Gal is also a story about the strength of friendship between women. Karen’s best friend, Angie, supports her through a series of devastating losses until their relationship is destroyed by a shocking act of betrayal. Fast paced and sensual, White Liver Gal explores what it means to be a young woman both defined by her sexuality and rejected for embracing that sexuality. As Karen begins to uncover the dark secrets of her own family, she faces the limits of her sexual power and learns about the redemptive possibilities of the powerful bonds between women.
Karen Vincent is eleven when her mother leaves home, her father begins visiting her room late at night and she realizes her family has deeply buried secrets. Set on the beaches and in the nightclubs of Jamaica, White Liver Gal is a coming of age story about a young woman’s sexual power and the risks she faces in using it . When Karen tries to escape her fractured family as a teenager, she goes to live with her older married lover believing that it is better to be a mistress than a wife. White Liver Gal is also a story about the strength of friendship between women. Karen’s best friend, Angie, supports her through a series of devastating losses until their relationship is destroyed by a shocking act of betrayal. Fast paced and sensual, White Liver Gal explores what it means to be a young woman both defined by her sexuality and rejected for embracing that sexuality. As Karen begins to uncover the dark secrets of her own family, she faces the limits of her sexual power and learns about the redemptive possibilities of the powerful bonds between women.
Excerpts from White Liver Gal
My mother left our family for good just before my eleventh birthday. We lived in Jamaica then. My father was an English engineer who was posted to Jamaica in the 1950s to help the government build roads and he met and fell in love with my Jamaican mother. “She did mad him,” Nanny Eve told me once. “Them white liver gal, hard to get away from them.” I had no idea what she was talking about but I would one day hear it said about me. White liver gal.
On the day my mother left, the dry March breeze rattled the woman tongue trees on Jack’s Hill and the bush fires had just started. We had lived on Jack’s Hill Road since I was four. The house had a verandah which ran along the front facing the Liguanea Plain and Kingston Harbour and it caught the sea breeze in the day and the land breeze at night. I wanted to sleep on the verandah, but Nanny Eve said it was dangerous. The next best thing was standing on my bed in the morning and peering through the louvre windows to the city below. Low houses hid under large trees – mango, guango and breadfruit – cozy cooking fires sent trails of smoke in the washed-out early morning sky, and Kingston Harbour lay in a dark oval, its waters not yet agitated by the sea breeze which came up by ten. I was half Jamaican, half English. I did not know what that meant.
My mother left our family for good just before my eleventh birthday. We lived in Jamaica then. My father was an English engineer who was posted to Jamaica in the 1950s to help the government build roads and he met and fell in love with my Jamaican mother. “She did mad him,” Nanny Eve told me once. “Them white liver gal, hard to get away from them.” I had no idea what she was talking about but I would one day hear it said about me. White liver gal.
On the day my mother left, the dry March breeze rattled the woman tongue trees on Jack’s Hill and the bush fires had just started. We had lived on Jack’s Hill Road since I was four. The house had a verandah which ran along the front facing the Liguanea Plain and Kingston Harbour and it caught the sea breeze in the day and the land breeze at night. I wanted to sleep on the verandah, but Nanny Eve said it was dangerous. The next best thing was standing on my bed in the morning and peering through the louvre windows to the city below. Low houses hid under large trees – mango, guango and breadfruit – cozy cooking fires sent trails of smoke in the washed-out early morning sky, and Kingston Harbour lay in a dark oval, its waters not yet agitated by the sea breeze which came up by ten. I was half Jamaican, half English. I did not know what that meant.
Reviews of White Liver Gal
I am a fan of Diana McCaulay’s writing, so I bought this one as soon as it came out. It’s quite different from her other books, but I did enjoy it. It’s an easy, fast-paced read; read it in a few hours. But it’s not a simple book and deals with a serious subject – the double standard women face, if they use their sexual power. The book starts when the main character, Karen Vincent, is eleven and her mother leaves the family. She is failed by everyone who should protect her, including her father, and this leads her to make some bad choices. This is also a book about friendship between women – Karen’s best friend, Angie, stands by her until .. well, I won’t reveal the plot. Although Karen could be considered a “bad girl” I rooted for her right through the book. White Liver Gal (great title!) is a powerful book tackling a difficult subject.
I am a fan of Diana McCaulay’s writing, so I bought this one as soon as it came out. It’s quite different from her other books, but I did enjoy it. It’s an easy, fast-paced read; read it in a few hours. But it’s not a simple book and deals with a serious subject – the double standard women face, if they use their sexual power. The book starts when the main character, Karen Vincent, is eleven and her mother leaves the family. She is failed by everyone who should protect her, including her father, and this leads her to make some bad choices. This is also a book about friendship between women – Karen’s best friend, Angie, stands by her until .. well, I won’t reveal the plot. Although Karen could be considered a “bad girl” I rooted for her right through the book. White Liver Gal (great title!) is a powerful book tackling a difficult subject.
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